Addressing concerns of possible environmental impacts, President of Guyana Goldfields Inc (GGI) Scott Caldwell on Tuesday reiterated an earlier company promise that he would drink a Glass of treated tailings water from its Cuyuni mine to show that there was no threat.
He renewed the promise at a public forum held by the Canadian company at Herdmanston Lodge in Queenstown.
GGI in September inaugurated its gold mine and up to last week it had already surpassed 21,000 ounces of gold using a purification process that utilises cyanide.
Use of cyanide is especially sensitive here following Omai Gold Mines Limited’s 1995 tailings dam collapse which resulted in a huge amount of cyanide-tainted water spilling into the Essequibo River.
In recent weeks, a tailings dam collapsed in neighbouring Brazil leaving a number of persons dead and others missing and a